Launched in 1969 and long since defunct, the spacecraft has turned up on the opposite side of the world from where it should be View Image The British Skynet satellite launches from Cape Kennedy - now Cape Canaveral - in Florida on board a Delta rocket in 1969 (Image: NASA)

Britain’s first military communications satellite - Skynet-1A - has been quietly moved decades after it was decommissioned but no one is sure by who or when. ‌

Launched from Florida in 1969 on a Delta rocket to relay secure communications for the UK’s armed forces in Africa, Skynet suffered hardware problems and ceased functioning around 18 months after beginning its mission. ‌

The spacecraft, the oldest UK satellite still in space, was effectively abandoned to drift in a geostationary orbit some

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